Literature Review On Floods

In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount

In coastal flooding the coastal areas are flooded due to storm activity at sea. The waves break through coastal defenses and submerge the area.

A natural disaster is something that we cannot avoid, but we can mitigate the effects. Flooding is a natural disaster that we mostly experience in our community, and in case of a flooding in LAPS we should be able to act towards it. An important question we can ask to ourselves is, how can we help LAPS in case of a flooding? There is many different ways that we can help this organization, one is by

On April 18, 2016 Yahoo reports Houston, Texas have flooding that forces residents to move out their homes and live in a nearby shelter. The flooding causes damage to the electricity lines, foreclosures of freeways, and forcing schools to close down because of the weather. One million students got the day off including workers. It’s deeply saddened that five victims were dead in this weather. There is over 450 water rescue and victims were transported to the mall to shelter away until the storm passes. It’s hard for people to drive in the freeway because the water can be up to 15 feet deep. The weather causes frustration toward the Houston resident.

Flooding is one of the many risks that people and their private properties assume when they consider living in a specific geographic location. This is true for the residents of Howard County, as they live near the Chesapeake Bay, whose tributaries branch off into smaller rivers, streams and lakes. Due to the fact that Howard County is more developed in the southeast and more rural in the west, there is a correlation between the risk of flooding and the presence of human development. (any cite here?) Natural factors play an integral role in determining the probability of flooding in a particular section of the county as well. People and their private properties are highly impacted by flooding, as it can cause death and injuries to humans

Hurricane Katrina. [Electronic Resource] : Wind Versus Flood Issues. Washington, DC : Office of Inspector General, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, [2008], 2008. EBSCOhost, excelsior.sdstate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04225a&AN=sdsu.008408717&site=eds-live.

Floods are common natural disasters that occur all over the world. Flooding has devastating impacts on the lives of people who are affected by the disaster. Floods can ruin crops, demolish homes, take innocent lives and cause many other types of hardships. These disasters can also leave people with a financial burden and emotional effects. Studies have shown that floods have led to various sickness and health complications. This common disaster has recently taken place in the state of Louisiana. Louisiana has been suffering from an enormous flood and has left people without homes, without food, and without personal belongings.

As we’re trying to move from relief to recovery and rebuilding, it’s nearly imperative that we look back to unveil why this widespread flooding occurred in the first place. If we trace back to the research of engineers in the 1990’s, it was recorded that the reservoir system was inadequate and endangered thousands of lives and properties (Thompson). Arthur Storey, Harris County’s Flood Director in 1996, coins the wreckage that lies before us as “a massive governmental and engineering failure” (Thompson). Research suggests that we foresaw the potential damage, yet failed to invest in modern development

In the summer of 1993 the United States were faced with the most devastating flood that has ever occurred. Seventeen thousand square miles of land were covered by floodwaters in a region covering all or parts of nine states (North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois). All large Midwestern streams flooded including the Mississippi, Missouri, and Kansas, Illinois, Des Moines and Wisconsin rivers. The Mississippi river was above flood stage for 144 days between April and September and approximately 3 billion cubic meters of water overflowed from the river channel onto the floodplain downstream from St. Louis.

More than 7 trillion gallons of water fell in Louisiana and Mississippi over the course of eight days (Sergent et al., 2016). There have been at least 13 deaths recorded and over 40,000 homes have been destroyed. Rainfall numbers in double digits from a storm can bring havoc to an area, thus triggering rivers to ascend swiftly, and exceed flood levels (Dolce, 2016).

On August 29, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. Winds of more than 125 miles per hour, coupled with storm surges reaching up to 34 feet, devastated several coastal communities. These communities were “Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport, Pascagoula, and Pass Christian in Mississippi; and Bayou La Batre, Dauphin Island, and Mobile in Alabama (Funk and Wagnalls)”. The storm destroyed a amount numerous homes, businesses, and roads and bridges. “In New Orleans, winds of up to 100 miles per hour damaged many buildings (Funk and Wagnalls)”. But rapidly increasing water levels brought the most destruction. A storm surge pushed water over the New Orleans levee system. The city’s low level neighborhoods became submerged within minute of the levees

In 1987 an atmospheric river heated Los Angeles ,the consecutive rain for more than 5 days made this the largest Flood that had happen in Los Angeles. This is best know as the California Great Flood. Houses, infrastructure, landfill were under water and hundreds of people die. This Flood has been the most expensive flood recorder in Los Angeles history. Billions of dollars were the total sum of losses left by the Flood as a result the entire state of california was declared in bankruptcy. Los angeles is not a place where hurricanes are generated due to its location but it is affected by El nino and atmospheric rivers that year after year are increasing its power. Is a vulnerable city where flood can occur at anytime , due to it topography

The water levels were so high that they pushed business owners to the roofs of their businesses. One of those businesses opened up 7 months after the flood. They have good luck with this new levee that they have recently built.

After watching the devastating news on TV, I wanted to learn more about the ways we can control future flooding and understand why more powerful storms are becoming more frequent. I found the most interesting fact in the article to be that climate change is going to continue producing more violent storms. As the article states, society needs to prepare for more extreme rainfall and know that everyone is at risk. I would like to know some of the exact areas that need better flood prevention systems. After reading this article, I read another article in the New York Times entitled “As Climate Changes, Southern States Will Suffer More Than Others” (Plumer and Popovich, 2017). It explained in greater detail, that warmer areas like Texas will see a greater flooding impact from warming patterns. If I was in charge of the research, I would have included some of the New York Times data to provide greater detail on areas that are at greatest risk for epic

A flood can be defined in many depths but is simply water where it isn’t wanted. In late 2010 Queensland was affected by major flash flooding this continued on into the beginning of 2011 and ¾ of Queensland was declared a disaster zone.